Physician Pressured to Give up Her Belief to Attend Daughter’s Graduation in the U.S.

(Minghui.org) Falun Gong practitioner Dr. Li Hongxiang, a gynecologist from Laixi City, was changing planes at the Beijing Airport in December 2013, on her way to her daughter’s Master’s graduation in the U.S., when she was told that her passport was no longer valid.

When she checked with the entry-exit administration office, she found out that her passport had been suspended by the 610 Office when she was blocked from going to the U.S. for her daughter’s Bachelor’s graduation in March 2012. She was told by the Laixi City 610 Office that she had to write a guarantee statement renouncing Falun Gong before her passport could be reinstated. This was but one instance of the persecution that she has endured over the past 15 years.

Discrimination at Work

The hospital where Dr. Li worked has withheld over 10,000 yuan from her since the persecution of Falun Gong began on July 20, 1999. The hospital authorities refused to pay her salary for three months starting in December 1999, and they only paid her 300 yuan each month afterward. Later, they transferred her to a village hospital.

Dr. Li was hired as the deputy director of the gynecology department at the Laixi City No. 2 Hospital in September 2001. Two years later, the department head and the hospital director reported her to the 610 Office for handing out materials that promoted Falun Gong.

Dr. Li was disqualified from a promotion exam in 2005 even though she had very high scores. She was also ranked last in year-end evaluations in 2006 for refusing to report to the hospital president before leaving Laixi City.

The hospital issued a regulation in January 2007 that banned Falun Gong practitioners from holding any middle management positions. She was forced to resign as deputy director of the gynecology department and was transitioned to the logistics office in March 2008.

Arrests and Detentions

Along with thousands of other practitioners, she went with her parents and her eight-year-old daughter to Beijing to appeal for the right to practice Falun Gong on April 25, 1999. She was arrested in Beijing and taken back to her hometown of Laixi City.

She went to Beijing again on July 21, 1999. She was arrested before she ever reached Beijing and was held in the Laixi Detention Center for over 10 days.

She was arrested again and held in the same detention center for 15 days in September 1999. She was beaten while detained. She was detained for 42 days in October 1999.

Dr. Li was arrested and detained again when she tried to go to Beijing for a third time. She was then taken to the Laixi Brainwashing Center for seven days in late December 1999.